Interaction studies and gamma-ray properties of some low-Z materials

Abstract

In present work we use NaI(Tl) detector in narrow-beam good geometry set-up for the gamma ray attenuation studies of some low-Z materials. The parameters such as mass attenuation coefficients, effective atomic numbers and effective electron densities, atomic cross-sections, electronic cross-sections of materials for graphitic powder, polycarbonate, polyvinyl chloride, plaster of Paris, gypsum, and limestone were determined using gamma ray sources 57Co, 133Ba, 137Bs, 60Co, and 22Na at energies of 122, 356, 511, 662, 840, 1170, 1275, and 1330 keV. It was observed that the effective atomic numbers and effective electron densities initially decrease and tend to be almost constant as a function of gamma-ray energy. An attempt was done to check the availability of these low-Z materials at large scales and obtainable at low cost as gamma ray shielding materials. The investigated data are useful in electronic industry, plastic industry, building materials, and agriculture fields.

Keywords

• mass attenuation coefficient
• atomic cross-section
• effective atomic number
• low-Z material